This invention pertains to a bolt having a flexible shank and useful to connect two adjacent revetments in an assembly of concrete revetments.
As exemplified in older patents including U.S. Pat. No. 2,876,628 and in newer patents including U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,108,222, 5,632,571, and 5,779,391, assemblies of predominantly concrete revetments are employed to line embankments, stream beds, and driveways for emergency vehicles.
As exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 2,876,628 and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,779,391, cables are employed to connect the respective revetments of such an assembly to one another, whereby the assembly is articulated. As exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 5,108,222 and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,632,571, a polymeric grid is employed to connect the respective revetments of such an assembly to one another, whereby the assembly is articulated.
As exemplified in older patents including U.S. Pat. No. 1,164,707 and French Patent No. 1,265,140 and in newer patents including U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,903,702, 4,661,012, 5,484,230, 5,779,391, 5,906,456, and 6,071,041, it is known for such a revetment to have marginal projections, which interfit with marginal recesses in adjacent, similar revetments. A revetment of related interest is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,792. As disclosed therein, the revetment has projecting spacers that abut or interlock with projecting spacers on an adjacent, similar revetment.
This invention provides a bolt having a flexible shank and useful to connect two adjacent revetments in an assembly of concrete revetments. The flexible shank, which is polymeric, has a proximal end and a distal end. The bolt has a heat, which is attached to the proximal end, and a nut, which is attachable to the distal end. Preferably, the shank and the head are molded unitarily from a polymeric material, such as 30% glass-filled, UV black-pigmented, nylon 6/6 copolymer. Preferably, moreover, the nut is molded from the same material. Preferably, the distal end is barbed and the nut is shaped complementarily, so as to fit over the distal end.
In an intended use in an assembly of concrete revetments, each having two expansive surfaces, each having a first set of comparatively larger holes extending between the expansive surfaces, and each having a second set of comparatively smaller holes extending from at least some holes of the first set to outer edges of said revetment, the revetments of an adjacent pair of the assembly are connected to each other by one or more bolts, as described in the preceding paragraph, each bolt having its shank extending through a hole of the second set of each revetment of the adjacent pair.
Although the bolt provided by this invention has the intended use described in the preceding paragraph, the bolt provided by this invention is expected to prove to be also useful in various similar and dissimilar applications.